By Ally Uhlendorf and Tristan Weisenbach
Managing Editors
During his welcome address on Aug. 28 in Kendall Hall, newly inaugurated President Michael Bernstein shared his visions for the academic year ahead.
Bernstein discussed many initiatives that he hopes to develop over the coming months, as well as a handful of longer-term projects that will likely stretch on into the years ahead.
The president elaborated on his ideas in a follow-up interview with The Signal on Sept. 9, where he shared more specifics about his agenda.
Coordinated Action Teams
In his welcome address, Bernstein introduced his newest initiative, working groups called Coordinated Action Teams, known as CATs. So far, there are three groups: the dashboard group, the library group and the housing group. In his interview with The Signal, Bernstein broke down each individual group’s goals for the year.
The dashboard group comprises the College’s information technology team, enrollment management team and financial team. The goal of this group is to bridge the gap of communication between the different finances of the College and provide live updates of the College’s financial standing.
“I want us to have a real time dashboard where you can literally go on our website anytime you want and see where are we in terms of all our key metrics, enrollment, finances and operation,” Bernstein said. “I think it’s especially important now that people see in real time what’s going on.”
The library team’s goal focuses on economies in the operations of the library, as well as what students and faculty need or want from the library. The team is made up of librarians, faculty and a student representative.
“What we heard last year from the students was that you want more study space and collaborative space, so that will be the library team,” Bernstein said. “How do we continue to build and sustain a library of the future?”
Finally, the housing team focuses on the future of the College’s on-campus housing. The team is composed of the housing department as well as staff from the College’s finance department.
“Some of it is about enrollment, what students want and how we put our best foot forward to excellent students who want the residential experience,” Bernstein said. “And some of it is operational. Given what students want, how do we provision that kind of housing stock and maintain it?”
As the CATs are still fairly new, Bernstein said that all actions are a work in progress.
“I’m not saying any of these decisions have been made,” Bernstein said. “I’m not saying any one of them is the right one, but that’s what this group really has to do.”
Housing & Community College Partnerships
During his welcome address, Bernstein brought up “the big stinky elephant in the middle of the room, commonly known as the towers.” Bernstein told The Signal that he assumes “at some point we will be taking the towers offline, it can’t last forever.”
However, he stressed that no decisions have yet been made about whether they will be demolished, refurbished or something else. The CAT dedicated to student housing will be tasked with formulating a plan, he said.
He also acknowledged the work of former presidents R. Barbara Gitenstein and Kathryn Foster in developing future plans for the towers, saying he hopes to take into consideration their past ideas in any plan that he develops.
“I'm not suggesting that I know something that my predecessors didn't know,” Bernstein said. “I consider myself to be carrying the football that they passed on to me.”
Another housing initiative that Bernstein hopes to expand upon is an additional community college partnership with Brookdale Community College. According to Bernstein, Brookdale is interested in the possibility of their students taking courses at the College, taught by Brookdale faculty.
While there are “a host of logistical issues” that would need to be addressed with this proposal, the president is optimistic that the opportunity could be beneficial for both institutions.
Brookdale students would get to experience taking courses at a four-year institution, and the College could encourage those students who would then be familiar with our campus to transfer here after completing their time at Brookdale, he said.
New School
The president hopes to have the new School of Graduate, Professional and Online Education largely built out by the end of the academic year. He said Linda Mayger, interim dean of graduate and continuing studies, and Suzanne McCotter, interim provost, have been working to create substantive plans regarding how to get courses approved and how to hire the necessary personnel to get the school up and running.
“Fundamentally, the whole idea behind the school is to create new markets for what we do above and beyond this core market that we've always served, the so-called first-time, full-time freshmen,” Bernstein said.
One thing he hopes the new school can achieve is addressing a shortage across the state of trained personnel in specialty areas like county recorders, surveyors, and sewer and road authority workers.
“For the people who are interested in these, these are good careers,” he said. “You can build a whole career…being a county surveyor in Mercer County, and I think that’s an area where people may grow.”
State Funding
The College is also continuing to lobby state lawmakers to provide additional state funding. According to Bernstein, the College is beginning the search for a replacement for Jennifer Keyes-Maloney, the former associate vice president for government and community relations, who left her position earlier this year.
“She’s irreplaceable, of course, but we will find somebody to succeed her,” Bernstein said.
In the meantime, Bernstein hopes faculty and students will continue to speak to lawmakers and attend budget hearings to make the case for the College’s need for additional funds and why we would be “a worthy institution for them to invest in.”
Re-accreditation
A team from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools will be visiting the College throughout the week of Oct. 20 to meet with constituents, report to the campus in an open forum and generate a report.
“I’m not concerned that we won’t get reaccredited,” Bernstein said. “I think we’re doing pretty well in that regard.”
He commended the College’s accreditation team, composed of chemistry professor Joseph Baker, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Jennifer Palmgren and former Interim Dean for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Lisa Grimm, for preparing for the re-accreditation process over the last several months.
Potential reorganization of academic departments
Over the summer, McCotter worked closely with academic and senior faculty leaders to determine that the reorganization of schools at the College “doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense,” Bernstein said.
Instead, leaders are discussing the possibility of reorganizing academic departments within schools. Bernstein said any final decision will be determined by student interest and economical savings.
Specific details as to which departments would potentially be under consideration are not yet available.
